The new functions announced
South Korea's Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on November 1 the expansion of the functions of 'OnAI', the artificial intelligence system for public employees. According to a report by ETNews, the stated goal is to allow officials to search for up-to-date information from the internet and draft reports in Korean directly from the internal work network, without going through external networks.
The first new feature concerns AI-powered web search, introduced last month according to the source. The system makes it possible to obtain answers that incorporate recent policy materials and press articles available on the internet, so that the latest trends can be examined and analyzed while remaining on the work network. The article also specifies that the answers are accompanied by a QR code: by scanning it with a smartphone, users can consult the sources and original texts.
Pilot assisted writing and agent sharing
From next month, according to the ministry, the 'OnAI Collaboration' function will be trialed; it assists in drafting, editing and sharing reports. The described mechanism calls for the official to register the materials and forms already used in their work, and for the AI to analyze them to produce a draft of the document. The draft can then be edited in a web editor and shared with colleagues.
For 2027, a further extension is planned: a function that will allow public employees to easily use AI agents developed by other administrations or individual officials, pooling them. In the description provided, this is a sharing of tools already built, not a new development system.
The statements and points to verify
Hwang Gyu-cheol, director of the ministry's AI Government Office, said that AI is moving from a tool that answers questions to a work companion that searches for materials and drafts reports. He added that the goal is to lighten repetitive tasks and allow officials to focus on policies and services for citizens.
Some aspects not covered by the material remain to be clarified: the 2027 sharing platform is indicated only as a forecast, without details on which administrations or agents will be involved; no user numbers, costs or criteria for access to the pilot are given. The text also does not specify how the limits of the internal network with respect to external content will be managed, beyond the QR mechanism for tracing sources.
The significance of the announcement lies in the fact that the functions described move public AI from merely answering questions toward everyday document activities, such as searching and drafting, while keeping access within the work network. The pilot phase announced for next month will indicate whether the model works as described.
